combined disciplines
ENCOUNT3RS
ENCOUNT3RS – three landmark ballet commissions
Curation
Collaboration
Mentorship
Special projects bringing orchestral music into conversation with the natural world, dance, public life and the next generation of artists.
Art · science · nature
SPHERE
Listening to the Earth
SPHERE grew from a question I have returned to throughout my work: how can an orchestra help us listen differently—to one another and to the natural world?
As artistic curator of the Sphere in 2022 and Sphere 2.0 in 2024 I brought together colleagues from music, dance, theatre, visual art, science and public conversation to create a festival in which disciplines could meet on equal terms. The 2024 edition followed rivers and waterways, exploring water as a source of life, inspiration and shared responsibility. Explore the programming and the projects that our wonderful guests brought to the project, by following the link below.
Not simply a sequence of performances, but an environment in which art could sharpen our awareness of the world around us.Explore SPHERE
Dance · image · orchestra
UAQUE
A shared physical world
For the opening of SPHERE, I wanted the orchestra not merely to accompany another art form, but to inhabit a shared physical and visual world.
Created with choreographer Andrea Peña and photographer Edward Burtynsky, UAQUE brought ten dancers into dialogue with Burtynsky’s images of extraordinary natural beauty and ecological disruption. The NAC Orchestra, electronic sound and music by composers including Arvo Pärt, György Ligeti, Keiko Devaux, Puccini and Knut Nystedt became part of a single theatrical landscape.
A meditation on resilience, vulnerability and our complicated relationship with the planet we inhabit.Discover UAQUE
Music · journalism · freedom
Truth in Our Time
Philip Glass · Symphony No. 13
I conceived Truth in Our Time as a response to one of the underlying questions of our era: if we are inundated with (mis-)information and truth becomes malleable, how do we converse?
At its centre was the NAC Orchestra’s commission from Philip Glass: Symphony No. 13, written in tribute to Canadian journalist Peter Jennings. We placed the work alongside music by Nicole Lizée, YAO, Shostakovich and Korngold—performed with James Ehnes—to create a programme in which every work approached truth, political pressure and personal freedom from a different direction.
What can artistic truth mean in moments when truth itself is contested?Explore Truth in Our Time
The next generation
NACO Mentorship
Learning side by side
The NACO Mentorship Program grew from a simple conviction: emerging musicians learn most deeply when they are welcomed fully into the working life of an orchestra.
We designed a paid, immersive programme in which early-career conductors, instrumentalists, librarians and orchestra administrators work side by side with the musicians and staff of the NAC Orchestra. Rehearsals and public performances are combined with individual coaching, mock auditions, professional guidance and the informal exchanges through which so much orchestral knowledge is passed on.
Not simply preparation for an audition, but an introduction to the shared purpose that sustains an orchestra.Discover the programme
DISRUPTED
ground-breaking series
“We wanted to create a project that engages in a profound way with the Canadian public and demonstrates how a symphony orchestra can become a vehicle for powerful storytelling and a tool for social inclusion. Our society has been confronted with fundamental questions about equity, representation, accessibility, and we at the NAC were interested in how an orchestra can be driving forward the conversation and become a catalyst for change. UNDISRUPTED serves to underscore the strength, the breadth and diversity of creative voices in this country.”
Alexander Shelley
UNDISRUPTED - The Vision
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Managing Director, NAC Orchestra Arna Einarsdóttir
Creative producer Donna Feore
My Impressions
“We wanted to create a project that engages in a profound way with the Canadian public and demonstrates how a symphony orchestra can become a vehicle for powerful storytelling and a tool for social inclusion. Our society has been confronted with fundamental questions about equity, representation, accessibility, and we at the NAC were interested in how an orchestra can be driving forward the conversation and become a catalyst for change. UNDISRUPTED serves to underscore the strength, the breadth and diversity of creative voices in this country.”
My Impressions
“This project was born out of the desire to respond to these times of disruption, by pushing the boundaries and exploring the digital medium to present orchestral music in a completely new and unexpected way. UNDISRUPTED is an important step in fulfilling our commitment to engage with audiences across multiple platforms and work with artists from diverse backgrounds. UNDISRUPTED perfectly captures the collaborative nature of our Orchestra, which strives to explore and expand diversity in our musical genre.”
My Impressions
“This project has been specifically developed for a digital platform because the audience could not physically be present in the hall. The intent was to keep their seats warm and to bring Southam Hall to them with a virtual experience. We wanted to offer these artists complete artistic freedom, and it feels wonderful to give them the space and resources to bring their visions to life. It’s a collaboration in its highest form, working with so many artists, technicians and disciplines to make this large-scale project a success.”
The Vision
Almost overnight, the COVID-19 crisis had a devastating impact on the performing arts sector, disrupting plans for creative artists round the globe. Deeply concerned about the enormous challenge artists were facing, the NACO team, Creative Producer Donna Feore and I came together to create a project that would give voice to artists in an “undisrupted” way.
This four-episode series takes the audience on a musical and visual journey with powerful, diverse and contemporary stories. Visionaries Measha Brueggergosman, Ana Sokoloviċ, Nicole Lizée and Shawnee Kish were each invited to draw on their own unique experiences using NACO as a megaphone to share their stories – stories that come to virtual life with the inclusion of mixed reality visual designs created by Montreal’s Normal Studio.
These four leading artists were offered a blank canvas to curate their 30-minute episode in which they each explored compelling narratives, offering unique and personal perspectives of the world. They were each empowered to collaborate with a wide variety of performing and visual artists to amplify their stories.
More than a filmed performance, UNDISRUPTED immerses the audience with the orchestra and the concert hall with multiple camera angles captured by audiovisual production company ProdCan Inc. and mixed reality effects created by Montreal-based Normal Studio bringing the NAC’s Southam Hall to life in a way that has never been done before.
On May 19, 2016, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra performed the world premiere of Life Reflected. It was the most ambitious concert in the history of the Orchestra, for many reasons. It was created by multiple composers, in collaboration with multiple artists, across many disciplines. Its multimedia presentation challenged the convention of what an orchestra concert could be.
But the work’s true power lies in its subject matter – stories that present the female perspectives of four remarkable Canadians: Alice Munro, Amanda Todd, Roberta Bondar and Rita Joe. Each faced great challenges in their lives, yet each spoke with a strong, distinct voice that made an impact on our world.
Life Reflected was performed to great acclaim in cities across Canada during the Orchestra’s Canada 150 Tour in 2017 and subsequently for international audiences in 2019 during its European Tour in honour of the NAC’s 50th anniversary.
Peter and the wolf
Peter and the Wolf in Hollywood rediscovers and reinvents Prokofiev’s timeless masterpiece for the next generation.
Deutsche Grammophon, Giants are Small, the National Youth Orchestra of Germany and I teamed up to create a recording, app and live show that introduces a brand new prequel story alongside the original children’s classic for the first time.
Prokofiev’s tale is set in modern-day Los Angeles and anchored with a thrilling prequel – set off by the wolf’s escape from the local zoo – that takes Peter on a journey of robot building, a helicopter chase, and some melancholic introspection, all before he enters the forbidden meadow where he finally captures the wolf.
Giants Are Small’s trademark style combining magical visuals, touching characters, and tone-perfect comic timing opens a fresh view of Peter’s adventure — and a fresh hearing of Prokofiev’s classic score, which is performed in full, preceded by a wide selection of works by classical music legends such as Wagner, Schumann, Mahler, and Satie.
Next Generation:
Youth and Education
Alice Cooper says that narrating Peter and the Wolf in Hollywood took him back to his childhood. “I first heard this back in Detroit, when I was six or seven years old. My mom put the record on and I was instantly transported to another world,” he recalls. “And it has been huge fun for me to do something new after nearly 50 years in the business.” He’s also delighted with the story’s modern-day twist. “I love the fact that it’s moved on, and that Peter has come to Los Angeles to meet his grandfather, who turns out to be an old hippie! That gives the story a fresh dynamic. And I like that he’s not in the least bit terrified by the wolf, when everybody else is freaking out.”
ENCOUNT3RS is a landmark NAC Commission pairing three of Canada’s outstanding choreographic talents (Emily Molnar, Jean Grand-Maître and Guillaume Côté) with three of the country’s most exciting composers (Nicole Lizée, Andrew Staniland and Kevin Lau). Three remarkable new one-act ballets, each with an original orchestral score, premiered by dozens of dancers from the National Ballet, Ballet BC and Alberta Ballet together with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, under the baton of music director Alexander Shelley.
“Multi-disciplinary performances like this are, in the best-case scenario, playgrounds for the dance, music and visual art to truly augment one another” says Music Director Alexander Shelley. “My hope is that those individuals who’ve come for dance will leave the hall saying ‘I loved the dance, but wow that music was amazing.’ And vice versa.”
Future Lab
Unlocking potential through music
The decision to move the orchestra’s rehearsal rooms to the building of the Bremen East Comprehensive School (Gesamtschule Bremen-Ost) was one of the most momentous steps in the history of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie.
For over ten years, orchestra, school and local community have formed the nucleus of the Future Lab, where the building of relationships stands at the heart of its work in music education. Musicians, schoolchildren, teachers, parents and the multinational residents of the local high-rise community of Osterholz-Tenever meet in the most diverse circumstances, projects and on all levels. The unique collaboration between school and orchestra has been honoured with numerous awards, including the 2007 Future Award for the Best Social Innovation. In 2009, the Future Lab was declared a nationwide pilot project by the Minister of State for Culture.
OrKidstra
I have had the privilege of serving as an OrKidstra Ambassador for several years now and continue to be inspired by the dedication, vision and passion of everyone involved.
They truly empower kids and build community through the universal language of music.
They carry out this mission by giving children from under-served communities free instruments, along with free group and individual music lessons. This gives children the chance to grow important life skills such as respect, compassion, teamwork, and responsibility through playing and working together.
On September 26th 2018 OrKidstra and I performed for assembled dignitaries in front of Canada’s Parliament Building at the One Young World Summit.